crying wolf makes a mendacious call

Liberal groupie and unreformed Cretienite Lawrence Martin laments the dumbing down of mass culture in today's Globe.
Unlike his usual non-sensical leftist drivel, I tend to share some of his disgust at the continuing devolution of men into simpletons.

It used to be that people got on airplanes and went to sporting events in jackets and ties. Nowadays, it's sweatshirts and other bowling-alley gear. Cargo pants and tattoos spread over half an acre can get you into most restaurants, as will T-shirts saying “You know where you can stuff it, beanhead.”

Too bad he didn't mention the ubiquitous presense of flip flops and sweat pants on campus.


But then he predicably slides down to offer the reader a half-backed apologia of the CBC:

If the CBC runs stuff that is too highbrow to attract a big audience, it is deemed a failure.

and one paragraph later he takes a cheap shot at Ronald Reagan:

Mass culture's engine is America. Some credit another post-Trudeau guy, Ronald Reagan, with ushering in the dumbing-down era. The Gipper, who owned more horses than books, was initially written off as a classic simpleton who wouldn't be able to cut it in the big leagues because he didn't know enough.

But if, as one congressman said of him, you could walk through his deepest thoughts without getting your feet wet, it didn't hurt. He was the great Republican success story. Now all presidents want to be as uninformed as he was.

Earth to Martin! Don't you remember that it was your guy, Jean Cretien, who liked to pose as 'da liddle guy' from Quebec and whose inability to make a coherent sentence in one of the country's official languages was more manifest than mine :-)(and reportedly his French was bad too).
As to the underappreciated sophistication of the CBC, I can only offer a sardonic grin. One of the worst intellectual crimes the Left has committed is the appropriation of such terms as 'critical thinking'. Spouting left-wing dogma and anti-Americanism doesn't pass as 'high-brow stuff'. You're still entitled to hold those views, Mr. Martin, but mind you - please don't try to pretend to be more sophisticated just because of that.

Update: Bob Tarantino has also commented on Martin's column.